Parimal Garg, deputy chief counsel to Gov. Phil Murphy, is sworn in ahead of testimony in front of the Select Oversight Committee in the Statehouse on Jan. 8, 2019.(Photo: Nicholas Pugliese/NorthJersey.com)

Lawmakers on Tuesday pressed allies of Gov. Phil Murphy on how they responded to a sexual assault allegation during his campaign that spread to virtually every high-ranking official in his inner circle but never made it to Murphy or led to disciplinary action against the alleged accuser.

Members of Murphy’s campaign, transition and administration offered a range of explanations for their actions — some of which, as some on the Select Oversight Committee said, defy common sense.

The nearly eight-hour hearing provided some answers to lingering questions in the scandal but also deepened confusion in other areas, such as how exactly the alleged accuser, Al Alvarez, was hired after the allegation surfaced during the Murphy transition and why he had an apparent deadline to leave the administration.

Alvarez resigned as chief of staff at the Schools Development Authority on Oct. 2 after the news media contacted him about an allegation that he sexually assaulted Katie Brennan, now a top aide at a state housing agency, while they were involved with the Murphy campaign in 2017. Alvarez has denied the allegation and, according to the testimony of his former boss at the authority, Lizette Delgado-Polanco, he and Brennan had a consensual relationship.

Tuesday's first witness, Deputy Chief Counsel Parimal Garg, described to lawmakers how he learned of the alleged assault. He said he was initially approached by Alvarez's accuser, Katie Brennan, at Murphy's inaugural ball on Jan. 16, 2018. She told Garg she wanted to "discuss a matter of serious wrongdoing by a senior administration official," he said.

Garg relayed that conversation to his boss, Chief Counsel Matt Platkin, and said neither of them knew what she wanted to discuss. Two days later, Garg spoke with Brennan on the phone and told her that although he was her friend and a lawyer, he was not her lawyer and could not commit to keeping their conversation privileged. Brennan decided not to speak to him further, he said.

Michael Critchley, an attorney for the committee, questioned why Garg did not demand that Brennan tell him about the wrongdoing, since it had the potential to affect the administration.

"Doesn’t your judgment tell you you should take some action on this?" Critchley said. "You have explosive words — serious wrongdoing. That could involve a lot of things."

Garg said he did not have the authority to demand the information from Brennan. And he said that "because Katie was my friend," he "wanted her to make an informed decision" about the potential ramifications of disclosing the matter to him.

Two months later, on March 18, Brennan called Garg, he said. They met in Princeton on March 22 and she told him that she had been raped by Alvarez.

"I was shocked. I was heartbroken for my friend and I offered her my support," Garg said.

By that time, Brennan had already told Platkin about the allegation, but, Garg said, "she wanted to tell me anyway."

Alvarez was told twice by administration officials that he should leave his position last year but remained on the job until Oct. 2. He had told Delgado-Polanco when she was hired over the summer that he was leaving the authority because the commute was “killing him,” he wanted to spend more time with his family and he had job offers in Bergen County, where he’s from. He agreed to stay on through her transition but told Delgado-Polanco he had to leave by the end of October. She said she was not certain why he had that deadline and was not told when she was hired about the allegation against Alvarez.

That Alvarez remained on the job so long surprised Murphy campaign attorney Jonathan Berkon, he testified Tuesday, because he had discussed with Platkin — and told Brennan — in June that Alvarez would be leaving government. Berkon said he expected that the separation would happen at a "reasonably fast pace."

But he said he did not follow up with Platkin between June and October. He acknowledged under questioning from the panel that perhaps he should have checked back in with the administration to see if Alvarez had left.

"It seems, unfortunately, that it was a trend that no follow-ups were done," said Assemblywoman Eliana Pinto Marin, D-Essex, co-chairwoman of the committee.

The Murphy transition's executive director, Jose Lozano, testified about Alvarez's hiring but provided no clarity on exactly how he got the job. Lozano said he was made aware of the allegation against Alvarez in December by Pete Cammarano, the incoming chief of staff, and transition counsel Raj Parikh. But he was not aware of the identity of Alvarez's accuser.

Lozano said that "within a day or so" he learned that authorities would not bring charges against Alvarez. Lozano, now the chief executive of the government-aligned nonprofit Choose New Jersey, said he was "puzzled" that authorities were not further pursuing the allegation.

Lozano said he did not speak with Alvarez about the allegation. He did, however, speak with the chief executive of the Schools Development Authority at the time, Charlie McKenna, about Alvarez working there in the new administration. But Lozano told the panel that he did not hire Alvarez. In testimony last month, McKenna said he received a text message from Lozano saying he wanted him to meet Alvarez because he was “going to be your new chief of staff.”

McKenna met with Alvarez and they discussed his background, “and then he was my employee — poof,” McKenna said.

Critchley asked Lozano if he thought he should have told McKenna as a courtesy that Alvarez had been accused of sexual assault.

“That was not something for me to decide,” Lozano said.

Several lawmakers expressed disappointment and confusion that people who were aware of the allegation didn’t do more to see that Alvarez left sooner or go directly to Murphy with the information.

“Nobody seems to have responsibility for anything,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, the other co-chairwoman of the committee.